Last school year, 199,000 Flemings enrolled in part-time art education in Flanders, an increase of 30,000 compared to a decade ago, according to figures from Education Flanders reported by De Zondag media.
Flanders currently hosts 153 accredited academies for music, drama, visual and audiovisual arts, and dance, spread across 1,487 sites. Among the disciplines, drawing schools were the most popular last year, followed by music theory and piano.
Other popular courses in the top ten included drama, guitar, general dance, violin, painting, drawing, and ceramics. Of the four main domains, music led with 84,144 enrolments across Flanders, closely followed by visual and audiovisual arts.
Teenagers accounted for 45,000 enrolments, representing a quarter of the total. However, they are the only group with fewer participants compared to ten years ago.
Adult learners also signed up in large numbers, particularly for visual and audiovisual arts. Many are reportedly keen to step away from their screens and engage in manual, creative work, according to the Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent.
